The Woods Hole Trad Stroll will be a month long this year! The event is virtual this year and expanded in scope. We are currently videotaping concerts by a dozen performers and talks by others on inclusion in the arts.
Performances will be aired on Falmouth Community Television, YouTube, and Facebook for five weekends on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, beginning Saturday, June 12, at 7 PM, and repeated Sunday, June 13, at 3 PM, with new programs aired every Saturday, and repeated on Sunday, through July 11. Once they are aired, the shows will remain available on ArtsFalmouth’s YouTube channel.
The pandemic forced us to cancel the Trad Stroll last year, but we were determined to hold it this year and have been busy scheduling acts, videotaping performances, and readying the “stroll” for a month-long celebration on Falmouth Community Television, YouTube, and Facebook.
The June 12/13 show begins with Cat’s Melodeon, an Irish multi-instrumental group led by Bill Black, who suggested that ArtsFalmouth have a traditional music event back in 2014 and has performed at every Trad Stroll since then. Cat’s Melodeon specializes in authentic Irish traditional music–the “pure drop” as it’s known in Ireland and includes guitars, pipes, banjo, and fiddles.
The Nobska Lights, a Woods Hole-based youth dance team, share two dances. Led Jan Elliott, who coaches and plays concertina, and Valerie Walbek, the Nobska Lights specialize in traditional Morris and sword dances from England.
The Familiars are up next. Manny and Linda Dias play folk, country, rock, fiddle, and popular music. Manny sings and plays guitar, while Linda plays violin, mandolin, harmonica, and Irish low whistle, as well as several Irish tunes on Celtic harp.
Rounding out the show is an interview with Lisa Drennan, founder of Merge Consulting, who introduces us to the concept of inclusion of people with disabilities in the arts.
The full schedule is available at https://artsfalmouth.org/woods-hole-trad-stroll-2021-schedule/
We won’t be strolling through the charming village of Woods Hole this year, stopping at cozy—but crowded–venues like the Historical Museum, the Library, Martha’s Vineyard Bank, Coffee O, and other locations to hear local performers, as in previous years, but we are bringing the Woods Hole Trad Stroll performances to a wider audience and giving people an opportunity to enjoy the many varieties of traditional—and contemporary—music from the comfort of their own homes.
For many of the groups involved, it’s their first performance since the pandemic began, and we are happy to be part of that experience.
The Virtual WHTS offers Celtic, English, Renaissance, folk, country, bluegrass, and original music and more. This year, “more” includes high-energy soul, funk, and blues music from the Groovalottos, a multi-Grammy nominated ensemble, who call their sound Southcoast Thump & Soul.
Also new this year is vocalist and songwriter Candida Rose, who combines her Cape Verdean musical roots with American jazz, singing a mixture of jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel that she calls KabuJazz.
Returning performers include singer/songwriter Kim Moberg, fiddler Heather Swanson, the youthful Sonnay Fiddlers, the Falmouth Fiddlers, Irish musicians Stanley & Grimm, and the Harper and the Minstrel, who play Renaissance and folk music on an array of ancient instruments.
The Stroll also includes a series of discussions about inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the arts, culminating in an art class taught by Linda Dias that everyone can enjoy and participate in at home.
Allen Russell, an ArtsFalmouth board member who is also on the staff of FCTV, has led a team of videographers, including fellow board members Andrew Sexton, Scott Sheehan, and Marilyn and Glenn Rowland, who are busy videotaping the performances and discussions.
It’s a huge job, but it’s very rewarding. We have the pleasure hearing a wonderful array of live music, mostly outside, and it’s been a very energizing and uplifting experience, especially now, as life is beginning to return to normal.
ArtsFalmouth is grateful to the Falmouth Art Center and FCTV for their collaboration on the event, as well as the Falmouth Cultural Council, the Mass Cultural Council, and the Woods Hole Foundation for their financial support of the project.
Note: Arts Alive, ArtsFalmouth’s annual three-day celebration of music and the arts, will be held September 10-12 this year, rather than in June. For more information, email info@artsfalmouth.org.
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